{"id":25280,"date":"2025-07-26T10:30:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T10:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/25280\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T10:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T10:30:16","slug":"early-season-frontrunners-for-7-cfl-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/25280\/","title":{"rendered":"Early-season frontrunners for 7 CFL Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Week 8 underway, we are now officially more than one-third of the way through the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

As such, we\u2019ve got a decent body of work to start forming some opinions. With plenty of runway in front of us, here are some early thoughts and frontrunners for how the league\u2019s year-end awards are shaping up.<\/p>\n

One note: these selections were made before Montreal\u2019s 23-21 win over Calgary on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

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MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER: BO LEVI MITCHELL | HAMILTON TIGER-CATS<\/p>\n

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As with many of these selections, the margins between players were thin. That is true of the CFL\u2019s premier individual award, which means opinions will likely be varied on this one. I went with Bo Levi Mitchell<\/a> because he\u2019s done an outstanding job carrying over his momentum from last season, where he was named East Division MOP.<\/p>\n

Entering Week 8, Mitchell led the league with 1,812 passing yards, 12 touchdowns, and 219 attempts. That makes his total of just two interceptions, the least amongst starters, that much more impressive. Rounding things out for Mitchell is an impressive 106.2 quarterback rating as Hamilton has won four straight after dropping their first two.<\/p>\n

Honourable mention: Trevor Harris<\/a>, Saskatchewan Roughriders. Kenny Lawler, Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n

MOST OUTSTANDING DEFENSIVE PLAYER: TYRICE BEVERETTE | MONTREAL ALOUETTES
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Linebacker Tyrice Beverette has once again inserted himself in the race for Most Outstanding Defensive Player (David Kirouac\/CFL.ca)<\/p>\n

In another extremely close race, it\u2019s hard to ignore just how strong Tyrice Beverette has been for the Als. Last year\u2019s MODP runner-up is having another stellar season with 28 defensive tackles, two quarterback sacks, one interception, and two forced fumbles in seven outings. Furthermore, Pro Football Focus has Beverette ranked as the league\u2019s highest rated linebacker, which includes top grades in pass rush and coverage categories.<\/p>\n

Honourable mention: Adrian Greene<\/a>, Calgary Stampeders. Tevaughn Campbell, Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n

MOST OUTSTANDING CANADIAN: NATHAN ROURKE | BC LIONS<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marshall Ferguson did a great job breaking things down earlier this week<\/a>, so this one was on a silver platter. And with the way Nathan Rourke<\/a> has performed in his return to the league, there just isn\u2019t another way you can lean right now. In five starts, Rourke has posted 1,607 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, and a 107.2 quarterback rating.<\/p>\n

Honourable mention: Adrian Greene<\/a>, Calgary Stampeders. Kevin Mital, Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n

MOST OUTSTANDING ROOKIE: DAMIEN ALFORD | CALGARY STAMPEDERS<\/p>\n

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While we cross our fingers that Damien Alford\u2019s lower body injury sustained Thursday night is a minor one, him leading the way amongst CFL rookies is another easy one. Alford sits tied for second overall with five touchdowns to go along with 307 yards on 13 receptions. Most importantly, Alford has forced Calgary to use him more frequently, which means we\u2019ll start to see him included far more going forward; he\u2019s been targeted just 17 times in six games so far.<\/p>\n

Honourable mention: Matthew Peterson, Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n

MOST OUTSTANDING OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: JARELL BROXTON | BC LIONS
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Offensive lineman Jarell Broxton<\/a> is the highest graded tackle (min. 100 snaps) in pass protection in 2025 according to PFF (Arthur Ward\/CFL.ca)<\/p>\n

The Lions made a commitment to improving their offensive line over the winter, and it seems to have paid off. But it\u2019s been mainstay Jarell Broxton holding down the fort from his all-important left tackle position. Broxton has anchored a Lions line that has allowed just six sacks, the lowest total in the league. BC also entered Week 8 as the league\u2019s best passing offence with a rushing attack averaging 100 yards per game.<\/p>\n

Honourable mention: Jermarcus Hardrick<\/a>, Saskatchewan Roughriders. Nick Callender, Montreal Alouettes.<\/p>\n

MOST OUTSTANDING SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER: ISAIAH WOODEN | HAMILTON TIGER-CATS<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only player with multiple return touchdowns this season, Isaiah Wooden<\/a> has been a revelation in Hamilton after being signed late last season. Wooden has a pair of kick return house calls to his name already this year, one for 105 yards and the other for 86. Furthermore, Wooden leads the league with 538 kick return yards and 807 total return yards.<\/p>\n

Honourable mention: Sean Whyte<\/a>, BC Lions. Marc Liegghio, Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n

COACH OF THE YEAR: DAVE DICKENSON | CALGARY STAMPEDERS
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Stampeders\u2019 head coach Dave Dickenson has guided the team to a 5-2 record so far in 2025 (Daniel Crump\/CFL.ca)<\/p>\n

Yes, this selection was made prior to Calgary\u2019s second loss of the season. But honestly, Thursday\u2019s result wouldn\u2019t have changed things for me. That\u2019s how impressive this Stampeders turnaround has been. After finishing ninth overall in 2024 and missing the playoffs for the first time in 19 years, Calgary has responded in style, boasting a much-improved offence and one of the league\u2019s best defences.<\/p>\n

Honourable mention: Jason Maas, Montreal Alouettes. Corey Mace, Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Week 8 underway, we are now officially more than one-third of the way through the 2025 season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-25280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}